Post-mortems

[Erkki]

Why did they start publishing these before the game is actually released?

There was one about Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor

And now there's one about Torchlight, a game I hadn't even heard of yet that is coming out Q4 this year. Ok, I haven't read this yet, maybe it's not exactly a post-mortem.

[Chris]

The nature of a postmortem only requires the game to have been completed, not released. It's a development-related article, not a marketing one (although publishers frequently try to conflate those distinctions).

In the case of the Torchlight piece, it's not a postmortem, it's an art-specific feature about how they've gotten to their current style.

[Erkki]

  Chris said:

The nature of a postmortem only requires the game to have been completed, not released. It's a development-related article, not a marketing one (although publishers frequently try to conflate those distinctions).

yeah, but because it's not a marketing one, that's why it's kind of weird as a gamer to read potentially spoilerific details about a games' development before the game is even out. I guess most gamers don't even read sites that do post-mortems though.

[edit] actually, what I meant is that post-mortems usually have "what we did wrong" and "what we did right" sections but I don't want to read that before I've played the game.

[Horticulture Tycoon]

I sort of agree, I mean I'd imagine it's pretty hard to have a sense of what went right and what went wrong until you're able to look at what kind of response your game is getting from an audience. Not that the audience reaction is the final word on the quality of the game, but it at least gives the developer an opportunity to respond to (or concur with) a greater consensus, if there is one.

I have a similar problem with director's commentaries on DVDs that are recorded before the movie is even released. If these things exist in a vaccuum and not as a part of a dialogue with the audience, then it defeats much of the purpose in my opinion. Not saying that it shouldn't be done at all, but to me it does make this sort of thing much less interesting.

[eclipt1c]

It might be for the developers. Everything is fresh in their mind and they're not working on anything else but maybe DLC for the game they just finished. Couldn't this provide fodder for reviews if it comes out before they do though? By that I mean point out stuff that some reviewers might not have thought about or noticed.

[gdf]

I think it's important for developers to express their own take on what they've created before the general opinion of the internet gets in the way. I'd never publish an article without proof reading it, and if I'd worked on a book for two and a half years, I'd want the opportunity to assess how I felt it had gone.

As for the examples: Randy Smith can write about whatever he likes, and that article was more interesting than his usual cryptic stuff. As for the Gamasutra piece, it's a site for game developers in the main.

Oh shit I hope I'm not wrong and get shat upon by Chris.

[by the way, who came up with the title "Editor at Large"? It sounds like you're an escaped lunatic who keeps a blog.]